Eye-opener: An essay on parrot!

An essay on parrot, how easy it sounds. Isn’t it? So, please try, yes, yes, try, writing an essay for a Class II student (see i told u na this is what happens with me. My roommate asked me to write an essay on parrot for her nephew who studies in class II.)

This is what I wrote. Parrot is a bird. It’s green in colour with red, curved beak. It’s kept as a pet. It can mimic human speech. It has four toes on each foot, two pointing forward and two projecting backward. Most parrots eat fruit, flowers, buds, nuts, seeds, and some small creatures such as insects. It has strong flight. It, it, it, it, ????, and a long blank…………………………

That’s it.

This proof of my intelligence came only after I initially laughed at the mere mention of an essay on parrot. Oh, an essay on parrot, just a five minute job. I was so excited. Parrot, after long I was actually hearing this name, Parrot, ah…a green coloured bird i was so fond of as a child.  It seemed ages that I heard or uttered this word. PARROT.

May be many of you are among the genius souls and can come up with many more points to write. But a person like me, who has been out of school for ages or formal studies for the past eight years, it turned out to be a tedious job. Add to it that I have no sibling or nephew or a niece who is studying in a school. So, I have no idea how much is the level of intelligence of a Class II student, what kind of words should I write, etc, etc.

Neways, coming to the point. After thinking hard and hard and hard, I still drew a blank. From the corner of my eye, I looked at my roommate, she was deep in thinking, but in the end drew a blank too. From the other end of eye, we looked at our another roommate, but found a more big blank. It reminded me of ‘fill in the blanks’ we did in school. Sadly, we had more blanks than answers. Though I could write many things like it’s origin, the species, where it is found, etc, etc, but it was meant for a Class II student. No big words or sentences, at least that’s what I thought. Scratched my head for what more information can I write about parrot. But couldn’t go beyond few lines.

Then, came the always reliable Google. Ah! Google, wonder how we studied without you. And finally, the essay was written. But only after realising some hard-hitting truth.

I mean imagine, I am supposed to know (or write) about important things happening in our country, issues plaguing the society, the economy of India, the cricket, and cricketers, and who’s dating whom,  the Bollywood heroes, Deepika-Siddharth relationship, and William-Kate wedding too, but parrot…what wrong has the poor parrot done.

On a serious note, what kind of progress is this that does not even allow us to ponder on all that we are losing. Most of our life is spent in doing things which adds little value to this precious gift of life we have got. Please don’t get me wrong. Not trashing anything, yes, we have to earn, learn, prove ourselves, and progress in life. But why not maintain a balance to enjoy the best of both the worlds. Why is enjoying and learning about nature, travelling and exploring, spending quality time with friends and family, enjoying the sun, the rain and simple pleasures of life not as prominent as is working, making money and progressing in life. And yes, learning about parrots too…:-(

Do you think we tend to miss on life while making a niche for ourselves?  Is balance important, or is it just about making our dreams come true no matter what. Is parrot nothing in front of passion?

(And yes, what more simple facts do you know about parrots, please share. Plz no google, try being honest).